This invention relates generally to crawler mounted rock drills for the construction and mining industry, and more particularly to a device for providing drill rod stabilization in a crawler having a drill tower and a movable drifter positioned thereon. It is often necessary to provide a center guiding device for long drill rods (rod length more than 14 feet or two piece rods joined together by a coupling) in addition to the regular centralizer at drill guide footpiece to prevent the drill rod from buckling during the drilling operation.
To provide a rod on the crawler machine, one prior art approach utilizes a moving guiding device in front of the drifter. The guiding device travels with the same speed as the drifter advance. This type guiding device is usually called a traveling centralizer. One side of the rod's guiding device is always arranged to have an opening in order to provide access for adding or removing drill rods from the drill string to the rod storage racking area. This opening will sometimes let the drill rod jump out off the guiding device during drilling or removal of drill rod from a drill hole.
The foregoing illustrates limitations known to exist in present drill rod guiding devices. Thus, it is apparent that it would be advantageous to provide an alternative directed to overcoming one or more of the limitations set forth above. Accordingly, a suitable alternative is provided including features more fully disclosed hereinafter.